# New discussion thread for Israel/Gaza/West Bank (Hijacks tolerated) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** israel-hamas-war, hijacks-tolerated\ **Created:** [July 12, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615 "2026-07-12T00:17:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/255 "2026-07-31T21:06:41Z")
The first two words in the headline. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/256 "2026-07-31T21:34:48Z")
My prediction: Trump’s team presented something to Hamas that Israel hasn’t seen. Perhaps Israel will then be presented with something different. And nothing changes, and no one disarms, and status quo. (Not the band.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/257 "2026-08-01T00:45:04Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The first two words in the headline. There are dozens of similar sites without that headline. The Deal is going forward, but let’s see. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/258 "2026-08-02T00:58:09Z")
I wonder how unusual this sentiment is among settlers: > **[Israeli West Bank settler tells BBC attacks on Palestinians are justified as...](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g4djgdyk2o)** > > Settler violence against Palestinians is on the rise in the West Bank, as settlements and outposts expand. > [@](#): > > But on this occasion, Yehuda Shimon, a lawyer with an organisation that represents Israelis arrested for violence against Palestinians, agreed to speak. > > He told me that attacks on Palestinian villages last weekend were justified as revenge for the killing of the outpost’s security guard. > > “I think now, after they killed one Israeli, we need to kill all the people in Tal and Sarra, even Jit and Farata,” he said, naming the Palestinian villages closest to the outpost. > > I put it to him that he was equating one Jewish life with hundreds or even thousands of Palestinian lives. > > “No,” he said, “millions. One Jewish life, it’s 10 million [Palestinians].” > > Challenged on the racism of his statement, he did not deny it. > > “Yes, I know,” he replied. “But this is the truth, because God chose us [and] because of this you are jealous.” Note that this is not some random asshole. He’s the lawyer an organization apparently chose to represent them. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/259 "2026-08-02T16:41:44Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > That’s not what Boehm meant by a reverse dominance hierarchy, and you’ve grossly misunderstood it. You are correct, my mistake. Thank you for correcting that. [https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/the-power-to-resist-power-reclaiming-reverse-dominance-in-a-posthierarchical-world](https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/the-power-to-resist-power-reclaiming-reverse-dominance-in-a-posthierarchical-world) > ## **What is a reverse dominance hierarchy?** > > Coined by anthropologist Christopher Boehm, the concept of reverse dominance describes a social mechanism by which groups resist domination rather than submit to it. In egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, leaders were tolerated only as long as they served the group. The moment they tried to coerce, accumulate, or elevate themselves above others, the community pushed back — through mockery, ostracism, non-cooperation, or, in extreme cases, expulsion. > > Unlike authoritarian systems, where power flows from the top down, reverse dominance ensures that power remains fluid, relational, and accountable. It’s not that no one leads — it’s that leadership is provisional, revocable, and never allowed to crystallize into domination. I was thinking of a dominance hierarchy that was intentionally inverted in the pursuit of egalitarianism. One where the people who are usually on top are put on the bottom, and vice versa. There does seem to be a lot of this, but I don’t know if there is a name for it. The concept where the traditional dominators (men, cishet, the west, white people, christians, etc) are seen in a positive light and the people seen at the bottom (women, LGBT, non-west, POC, non-christians) are seen in a negative light is inverted. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/260 "2026-08-02T16:48:50Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > At this moment, we have an Israeli government who, for years, purposefully assisted Hamas, and dismantled all more moderate alternatives, because they _agreed with Hamas that the bigger threat was a possible two-state solution_. This is true, Israel helped create Hamas to destroy a 2 state solution. I guess my point is that allying with islamic fascism always backfires. Islamic fascists can’t even get along with each other. So the idea that people today allying with Islamic fascism like Hamas or palesinian islamic jihad won’t backfire this time is silly. It always backfires. These groups are not outliers among the Palestinian people, they are representatives of the wishes and goals of the majority of Palestinians according to polls. I don’t think the Palestinian people collectively will ever live in peace. They want an ethnostate and they’re never getting one. Even if they did get one, they’d just turn on each other once they had it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/261 "2026-08-02T16:53:25Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I don’t think the Palestinian people collectively will ever live in peace. Thank you. This is the fundamental difference between us. I believe Palestinians are just people, no better or worse than anyone else. The great majority want a peaceful life with the same freedoms we have, and have no interest in violence. You disagree. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/262 "2026-08-02T18:38:47Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Thank you. This is the fundamental difference between us. I believe Palestinians are just people, no better or worse than anyone else. The great majority want a peaceful life with the same freedoms we have, and have no interest in violence. > > You disagree. No, he didnt. Even if a People want people, since that area hasnt had peace for centuries, it is unlikeley they will get it. Especially if they keep supporting terrorists. And if the > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > great majority want a peaceful life Why do they continue to support terrorist organizations? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/263 "2026-08-02T18:43:10Z")
@DrDeth, this is what Wes said: > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I don’t think the Palestinian people collectively will ever live in peace. Ever. He doesn’t ever think they’ll live in peace. Not ever. That’s the difference. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Why do they continue to support terrorist organizations? I don’t accept this is true, certainly not without a cite. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/264 "2026-08-02T18:53:12Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > He doesn’t ever think they’ll live in peace. Not ever. That’s the difference. In the last 1000 years, the Holy land has had about 3 Centuries of long periods of peace, most recently under the Ottomans in the 1500’s. So, maybe, possibly, but an extended peace is not the way to bet. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I don’t accept this is true, certainly not without a cite. Most recent poll I could find- > **[Press Release: Public Opinion Poll No (96) | PCPSR](https://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/1000)** > > These are the results of the latest poll conducted by PCPSR-Polling and Survey Research in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 22-25 October 2025. The immediate period prior to the poll witnessed the announcement of the Trump Plan at the end of... Support runs about 50% for Hamas. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/265 "2026-08-02T19:19:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > In the last 1000 years, the Holy land has had about 3 Centuries of long periods of peace, most recently under the Ottomans in the 1500’s. So, maybe, possibly, but an extended peace is not the way to bet. He didn’t say “the region”, he said “Palestinians”. He didn’t say Israelis will never live in peace, he said Palestinians won’t. He thinks Palestinians are different, as a people. Those are the words he chose. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/266 "2026-08-02T19:20:49Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Support runs about 50% for Hamas. Off the top of my head, that sounds about comparable to Israeli support for terrorists like Netanyahu, Gvir, settlers, etc. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/267 "2026-08-02T19:21:44Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > He thinks Palestinians are different, as a people. It does not seem to me he said that. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/268 "2026-08-02T19:31:34Z")
Hopefully he’ll explain what he meant. Maybe I’m wrong and he thinks Palestinians are regular people, no better or worse than any other group. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/269 "2026-08-03T03:02:36Z")
…there will be a renewed assault on the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the concept of international law in general. The President of the United States of America makes the intent of that assault crystal clear: > [@Dropsite](#): > > President Donald Trump clarifies that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s campaign to “bring the International Criminal Court to heel” is intended to protect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others facing ICC scrutiny. > … > Trump interjected to make Rubio’s objective clear: “He’s trying to defend Bibi and various other people.” > The reason I’m posting this is because I don’t know how things are going to change over the next few months or even the next few years. I’ve been consistent in my arguments that Israel’s actions in Gaza, the West Bank, and in other places they have attacked/occupied, like Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, are in breach of international law. But international law is under attack. I just needed to memorialize this moment. Because I fear that the US and Isreal are likely to succeed. This full-fronted assault on the institutions and frameworks that uphold international law mirrors the assaults on our institutions throughout the world, and in most cases, the institutions haven’t held up. But if they do fall, they fell _in defense of war criminals_. Ignore any of the other rhetoric you might hear, but Trump speaks plainly here. They are attacking international law because they are _breaking_ international law and they don’t want to be held to account. So I wouldn’t say or do anything differently if this does come to pass. If Netanyahu’s arrest warrant gets dropped, it isn’t because he didn’t deserve it but because _the bad guys won_. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/270 "2026-08-05T17:47:57Z")
“The Trump administration “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments. … This is our position,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on social media.” > **[Netanyahu says no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas has been...](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-gaza-news-1215e52022856b9de9837237a0e188fa?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share)** > > Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not withdraw from its current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/271 "2026-08-12T11:59:49Z")
Great article in Haaretz, with incredible detail about the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and the largely unrestrained violence of the settlers against Palestinian civilians that the government encourages: > **[Undoing History • How a far-right Israeli fantasy became reality in the West...](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2026-06-23/ty-article-static/as-the-world-watched-gaza-israeli-settlers-charged-ahead-in-the-west-bank-a-clash-is-imminent/0000019e-b6d1-d7bd-a3bf-befd20750000)** > > \*\*\* ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/272 "2026-08-13T08:36:27Z")
Horrific accounts of settler terrorist violence, while the IDF mostly stands by: [https://archive.ph/EnylF](https://archive.ph/EnylF) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/273 "2026-08-13T10:41:05Z")
Israel really, really just does not give a fuck. Continues to be just the most utter shit country: > **[Israel deliberately starting wildfires in southern Lebanon, firefighters say](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/12/israel-deliberately-starting-wildfires-in-southern-lebanon-firefighters-say)** > > Emergency services, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and crops ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615/274 "2026-08-13T11:12:54Z")
Are you sure Hamas is not hiding behind those trees? Or maybe some of those trees were listed in Hamas brigades in their youth? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-discussion-thread-for-israel-gaza-west-bank-hijacks-tolerated/1031615.md?page=14)